Author Topic: all members report any Aether II issues  (Read 31233 times)

Offline RJ

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #15 on: November 29, 2011, »
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tonight i was building my second Aether un power up I got a flash like normal. Now I installed a manual switch on mine when I flipped it on I got grren not white and the small black part on the Led started smoking. 

I fixed it turns out I wired it wrong.
Ooops! I can't fix that problem for you but I am glad you got it fixed.

RJ
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Offline inzeos

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #16 on: November 29, 2011, »
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tonight i was building my second Aether un power up I got a flash like normal. Now I installed a manual switch on mine when I flipped it on I got grren not white and the small black part on the Led started smoking. 

I fixed it turns out I wired it wrong.
Ooops! I can't fix that problem for you but I am glad you got it fixed.

RJ

RJ,

Could you take a peak and provide some insight into my issue where everything seems to work; however, the RED LED output is very faint.

Offline shaunkad

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #17 on: November 29, 2011, »
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tonight i was building my second Aether un power up I got a flash like normal. Now I installed a manual switch on mine when I flipped it on I got grren not white and the small black part on the Led started smoking. 

I fixed it turns out I wired it wrong.
Ooops! I can't fix that problem for you but I am glad you got it fixed.

Rj

I shared this as it is easy to do. I thought I did see a post or two about smoke and wrong colors.
RJ

Offline RJ

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #18 on: November 29, 2011, »
If we assume the pic output is working correctly then the circuit is simple, the big resistor sets the current that the regulator (5 pin part) puts out and the pic is just turning this fixed current on and off really fast at a duty cycle to match the DMX level. So 128 is half the time it is on and half it is off. This makes the led get it's rated current but only half the time. So in effect it gets an average of half the rated current and is half bright.

So likely issue is

1- the resistor is the wrong value so it has the current set too low.

2 - bad solder joint is cause the circuit to see it as the wrong value. or is limiting current to the circuit causing the same symptom.

3 - a bad regulator not regulating correctly.

4 - a bad led that is not putting out full light output for the current it is being given.

so check all solder joints and touch them up with plenty of heat and add a little solder for the flux or if you have some flux just add it to the joint before heating.

What is the voltage on the red leds + and Neg terminals at full brightness. This gives us a idea of if the led is getting what it should.

RJ
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Offline inzeos

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #19 on: November 29, 2011, »
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What is the voltage on the red leds + and Neg terminals at full brightness. This gives us a idea of if the led is getting what it should.

How would I test that?  I have a multi-meter but my experience with it so far has been limited to checking the values of resistors before installing them an continuity of a circuit when it is powered off.

Leif

Offline RJ

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #20 on: November 29, 2011, »
Put your meter on DC volts of at least 10 volts range or more. then put your red probe on the LED's pad #7 and your black probe on the pad #2 while the unit is on red 100% brightness.

It should be in the 2 volt area. let me know what you get.


RJ
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Offline inzeos

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #21 on: November 29, 2011, »
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Put your meter on DC volts of at least 10 volts range or more. then put your red probe on the LED's pad #7 and your black probe on the pad #2 while the unit is on red 100% brightness.

It should be in the 2 volt area. let me know what you get.


RJ

Thanks!

OK, will test it tomorrow.  Little one is asleep and baby monitor doesn't get good enough reception in the basement.

Leif

Offline inzeos

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #22 on: December 01, 2011, »
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Put your meter on DC volts of at least 10 volts range or more. then put your red probe on the LED's pad #7 and your black probe on the pad #2 while the unit is on red 100% brightness.

It should be in the 2 volt area. let me know what you get.


RJ

Thanks!

OK, will test it tomorrow.  Little one is asleep and baby monitor doesn't get good enough reception in the basement.

Leif

RJ,

Cleared the bench off and set the unit back up.  Powered it up to full power on channel one for RED using Lynx DMX Deck.

Set my multimeter to Vdc 10 and followed your process.

Meter read 5.03~

What would you suggest checking next?

Regards,

Leif

Offline shaunkad

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #23 on: December 01, 2011, »
just built my third one and the blue is barely on even at 255 what pads do I need to check just blew the fuse was trying to check voltage at the B regulater.
« Last Edit: December 01, 2011, by shaunkad »

Offline inzeos

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #24 on: December 01, 2011, »
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just built my third one and the blue is barely on even at 255 what pads do I need to check just blew the fuse was trying to check voltage at the B regulater.

You can go to mouser and look up the part number for the vendors specification sheet.


Offline shaunkad

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #25 on: December 01, 2011, »
I did that after a blew the fuse I need to look up the regulator next

Offline RJ

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #26 on: December 05, 2011, »
Ok I got a chance to check mine. i get 5.86 volts when red is full on. i do not know where i came up with 2 volts i guess I was thinking 1 red led but these are in series as three. so almost 6 volts is about right. you need to look for a bad solder joint or the large resistor being out of value.

RJ
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Offline RJ

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #27 on: December 05, 2011, »
Yes the data sheet has the pad number to led color on it to help with that. Each color should be a different voltage. But the data sheet shows this also. I do not run them at max current so it will be a little under the volt listed but only a little if you are a volt or more low you likely have an issue.

RJ
Innovation beats imitation - and it's more satisfying

Offline kgustafson

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #28 on: December 17, 2011, »
RJ,

Finally was able to put some time on the workbench for this (Christmas shopping is ALMOST done!  Woohoo!)

Here is where I am.

I D/led your test HEX program. 
Loaded it.
Powered the Aether II and it ran through the light sequence as advertised.

I then started Vixen with a small seqeuence to run through channels #1 - #4
Aether II responded correctly

I then powered down Aether II
Switched to Prog mode
Started Lynx Address Utility and set address for 133 (this wSthere it should be in my current show) and began transmitting
Powered up Aether II and got red flashes
Waited for 5 flashes then powered down Aether
Stopped Lynx Address Utility
Fired up Lynx with a seq from show
Powered up Aether and got single white flash
Testing channels I get the following:

Channel 1 - Green
Channel 2 - Blue
Channel 3 - White

All others no response (including channels 133-137)

No matter what I do (even trying to reset the channel address to 1) there is no change to this behavior.

Is possible that there is an problem with either a) the Lynx address utility or b) the program mode of the Aether?

I hope this gets us closer to the solution.

Kurt
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Offline inzeos

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Re: all members report any Aether II issues
« Reply #29 on: December 17, 2011, »
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RJ,

Finally was able to put some time on the workbench for this (Christmas shopping is ALMOST done!  Woohoo!)

Here is where I am.

I D/led your test HEX program. 
Loaded it.
Powered the Aether II and it ran through the light sequence as advertised.

I then started Vixen with a small seqeuence to run through channels #1 - #4
Aether II responded correctly

I then powered down Aether II
Switched to Prog mode
Started Lynx Address Utility and set address for 133 (this wSthere it should be in my current show) and began transmitting
Powered up Aether II and got red flashes
Waited for 5 flashes then powered down Aether
Stopped Lynx Address Utility
Fired up Lynx with a seq from show
Powered up Aether and got single white flash
Testing channels I get the following:

Channel 1 - Green
Channel 2 - Blue
Channel 3 - White

All others no response (including channels 133-137)

No matter what I do (even trying to reset the channel address to 1) there is no change to this behavior.

Is possible that there is an problem with either a) the Lynx address utility or b) the program mode of the Aether?

I hope this gets us closer to the solution.

Kurt

Sounds like one of the issues I ran into, which required reflashing the PIC to resolve.